St. Lawrence Wins ECACHL Regular-Season Crown
Playoff field is set with conclusion of regular season
ALBANY, N.Y. -- St. Lawrence claimed the 2006-07 ECAC Hockey League regular-season title after picking up two points in the final weekend of league play. It is the Saints second-ever season title and first since 1999-2000. The rest of the teams fell into place in the final standings, and once tie-breakers were completed, the seedings for the upcoming tournament were completed. St. Lawrence is the No. 1 seed, followed by No. 2 Clarkson, No. 3 Dartmouth and No. 4 Cornell. These four teams will have a bye in the first round of the playoffs, while No. 5 Quinnipiac, No. 6 Princeton, No. 7 Harvard, No. 8 Colgate, No. 9 Rensselaer, No. 10 Yale, No. 11 Brown and No. 12 Union will battle each other in the tourney opening best-of-three series starting this coming Friday.
St. Lawrence entered this past weekend needing just two points to claim the season title and did so on Friday night with a 4-1 win over Quinnipiac. Alex Petizian was stellar between the pipes, as he made 28 saves to earn the win. It was also the 20th win of the season for the Saints and the 13th 20-win season in program history.
Clarkson also downed Quinnipiac for its lone win of the weekend, en route to a second-place season finish and the No. 2 seed for the tournament. Grant Clitsome had a goal and an assist in the win, while David Leggio made a season-high 42 saves.
Princeton proved to be a road block for both the Saints and Golden Knights over the weekend, as the Tigers swept the North Country teams by a combined 11-2 score. Player of the Week Kevin Westgarth and Rookie of the Week Mark Magnowski combined for 11 points in the two wins. Westgarth had two goals and five assists over the two games, while Magowski had one goal and three assists. The duo also connected to provide assists on both game-winning goals.
Travel partners Harvard and Dartmouth teamed up to sweep Colgate and Cornell over the weekend and goaltenders Justin Tobe and Mike Devine shared Goaltender of the Week honors for their outstanding efforts. Tobe made 47 saves and posted a .959 save percentage, while Devine had 54 saves and a .964 save percentage. They each posted a 1.00 goals against average for the weekend. Dartmouth's victory also earned the Big Green the No. 3 seed in the tournament.
In the New York Capital District, Rensselaer and Union split their games with Brown and Yale. The Engineers started off the weekend with a 6-5 win over the Bears, while the Dutchmen shutout the Bulldogs, 3-0. The visitors had the upper hand on Saturday, with Yale and Brown each winning. Justin Mrazek earned the shutout over Yale by making 29 saves. It was his third shutout of the season. Garrett Vassel was the leader for the Engineers with a goal in the win and an assist in the loss. The visitors were led by Jeff Prough, who had four points on the weekend, while Yale's Sean Backman had a goal and an assist in the win over RPI.
The playoffs begin with the first round this coming Friday, March 2. The first round is a best-of-three series with games being played Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if necessary).
The following matchups will kick off the 46th annual tournament:
No. 12 Union at No. 5 Quinnipiac
No. 11 Brown at No. 6 Princeton
No. 10 Yale at No. 7 Harvard
No. 9 Rensselaer at No. 8 Colgate
Winners of the first-round will advance to the quarterfinals to face the top four seeded teams.
ECACHL Player of the Week
KEVIN WESTGARTH -- Princeton
Sr., Forward * Amherstburg, Ont.
Kevin Had seven points on two goals and five assists to lead the
Tigers to a weekend sweep.
ECACHL Co-Goalie of the Week
JUSTIN TOBE -- Harvard
Sr., Goalie * Northville, Mich.
Tobe earned the weekend sweep of Colgate and Cornell with a 1.00
GAA and a .959 save pct. He had 47 total saves in the games.
ECACHL Co-Goalie of the Week
MIKE DEVINE -- Dartmouth
Jr., Goalie * Orchard Park, N.Y.
Devine earned the weekend sweep of Cornell and Colgate with a 1.00
GAA and a .964 save pct. He made 54 stops on the weekend.
ECACHL Rookie of the Week
MARK MAGNOWSKI -- Princeton
Fr., Forward * Winnipeg, Man.
Mark had a four pts. in Princeton's sweep of the league's top
teams. He assisted on both GWGs.
TEAM NOTES
Brown: Brown scored a season-high two short-handed goals on Friday night at RPI, tying the school record for SHGs in a game set in 1977 against Penn ... After missing five games with an injury, Sean Dersch has scored 1-3-4 numbers in the past three games with at least one point in each game. He scored his second short-handed goal of the year at RPI ... Brian McNary has posted at least one point in each of the Bears' past seven games with 2-7-9 totals during this time ... Jeff Prough has 4-5-9 totals during the Bears past four games, scoring at least one point in each game. He has a career-high 32 points this season, which is 11th overall in the ECACHL ... Brian Ihnacak played in his 100th career game over the weekend as all three members of the Class of 2007 played in at least 100 games.
Clarkson: The Golden Knights' second-place finish in the ECACHL is their best showing in the league five years and gives the Green and Gold a first-round bye for the first time since the league went to a 12-team playoff format in 2003 ... Clarkson's 21 victories is its most regular-season wins since posting 21 at the conclusion of the 1998-88 campaign ... Four Knights are scoring 32 points or more, led by captain Nick Dodge with 35 (16-19) ... After giving up seven power-play goals over the previous three games, Clarkson enjoyed its best effort on of the season on the penalty kill against Quinnipiac, snuffing out all 11 of the Bobcats man-advantage opportunities ... David Leggio made a season-high 42 saves against Quinnipiac.
Colgate: Colgate will host a home playoff series for the fifth straight season this weekend. The Raiders have never lost a best-of-three series at Starr Rink under head coach Don Vaughan. The Raiders earned the No. 8 seed in this year's tourney ... Goaltender Mark Dekanich inched closer to breaking his own single-season saves record with 64 stops on the weekend. He now has 952 saves this year, which ranks third on Colgate's single-season records list. He needs 37 more stops to break his record of 988, set last season, and just 48 more to become the first goalie in school history to make 1,000 saves in one season ... On Saturday, Vaughan will coach his 500th career game. He is the second-winningest coach in school history with a 237-215-46 record.
Cornell: Cornell receives a bye in the opening round of the ECACHL tournament and will await the highest remaining seed after this weekend's first round ... Cornell senior Kevin McLeod had his first assist of the season and just his second career point in the loss at Dartmouth, assisting on Byron Bitz's third period goal.
Dartmouth: The Big Green earned it's third first-round bye in four seasons. When earning the bye Dartmouth has then advanced to the ECACHL championship round ... Seven players scored in double-figures in two wins last week. David Jones and Ben Lovejoy led all Dartmouth scorers with four points while Nick Johnson and T.J. Galiardi had three points. Peter Boldt, Tannner Glass and Kevin Swallow all chipped in two points ... Dartmouth swept Cornell with a 5-1 victory on Friday. It was the first time since the 2001-02 season.
Harvard: Harvard went 8-3-2 in its final 13 ECACHL games to finish tied for sixth place after a 1-6-0 start ... The Crimson outshot its opponents by a combined 74-50 over the weekend, allowing just two goals (a breakaway and a 5-on-3 PPG) and holding Colgate to five shots in each of the first two periods ... Harvard owns a 25-2-3 record against Yale at Bright ... Alex Meintel has recorded points in the each of the last three games (3-1-3) and has 15 points (12-3) and a +9 rating in the last 15 ... Doug Rogers went 18-6 on faceoffs over the weekend and has been .500 or better on faceoffs in each of the last 16 games.
Princeton: Princeton swept its final weekend of the regular season to complete the regular season at .500 both overall and in the league. The last time Princeton did both was in 1998-99 ... Princeton swept the league's top two teams, Clarkson and St. Lawrence, and outscored the pair a combined 11-2 ... Princeton completed a series sweep of Clarkson for only the second time in its history. The Tigers first sweep of Clarkson was in 1989-90 ... Kevin Westgarth recorded seven points over the weekend, five in a win over Clarkson and two in a win over St. Lawrence ... Grant Goeckner-Zoeller has assists in four straight games and his 103 career points ranks 10th all-time in Princeton history ... Mark Magnowski and Mike Moore each had four points over the weekend.
Quinnipiac: Two Quinnipiac players finished the regular season leading the ECACHL in key categories. Brandon Wong was tops in goals (24) and points (41), while Reid Cashman topped the circuit in assists (30) ... The Bobcats improved seven points and five places in the standings this year in comparison to their first year in the ECACHL ... Quinnipiac will host Union in a first round series this weekend. The Bobcats are 7-1 in home playoff games since moving to Division I.
Rensselaer: Four players scored their first goals of the season this weekend, including three -- Garret Vassel, Erik Burgdoerfer & Christian Jensen -- who had the first of their careers ... RPI's six goals on Friday night were the most the Engineers have scored in a game this season ... Kirk MacDonald became the 59th player in the program's history to reach the 100-point plateau when he had two goals and an assist in Friday night's game. He currently has 102 points (47 goals, 55 assists) to rank 55th in school history ... The Engineers were 2-1-0 in three meetings with Colgate this season. All three games were one-goal affairs.
St. Lawrence: St. Lawrence's win over Quinnipiac on Friday wrapped up the Saints first ECACHL regular-season title since 1999-2000 and just the second in Saint program history. It was also the 20th win of the season for the Saints, the 11th 20 or more win season for Saint coach Joe Marsh in his 22 year tenure and the 13th in program history ... Saint captains Kyle Rank and Drew Bagnall each finished the regular season with career highs in points, Rank with 30 points and a career-high 15 goals and Bagnall with 21 points ... The Saints are a top four seed in the ECACHL tournament for the 14th time in tourney history. The only other time they were the top seed in the tournament, 1999-2000, they won the title and advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four.
Union: Union's shutout win Friday marked the first since January 12 ... It was also the first over Yale in the series history... Union's seven league wins marks the fewest since the 1999-2000 season (six) ... Jason Walters snapped a 15-game scoreless streak with a goal against Brown ... Lane Caffaro assisted on the goal for his first point in four games.
Yale: The Yale PP broke out with 3/9 in a 4-3 win last Saturday at RPI, while Matt Modelski made 24 saves to move Yale into 10th place ... The Blue earns a trip to Cambridge to face a Harvard team it beat twice this season by a combined 10-3, including its second win ever at Bright Hockey Center ... Alec Richards won both games in the Yale net ... The Elis are 0-4 vs. Harvard in the playoffs.
